open your eyes

"'I can't shake this crazy feeling that there is some small thing that we're being lied to about.' And that's how the paper ended."

Ishmael nodded thoughtfully… "And do you still wonder if you've been lied to?"

"Yes, but not as desperately as I did then."

"Not as desperately? Why is that?"

"Because I've found out that, as a practical matter, it doesn't make any difference. Whether we're being lied to or not, we still have to get up and go to work and pay the bills and all the rest."

"Unless, of course, you all began to suspect you were being lied to-and all found out what the lie was."

"What do you mean?"

"If you alone found out what the lie was, then you're probably right-it would make no great difference. But if you all found out what the lie was, it might conceivably make a very great difference indeed."

~from Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

This passage came to my mind two nights ago as I was listening to a panel discussion at the Wil-Mar center about Iran.